Where Are They Now? Rich King, former Sonics No. 1 pick

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, March 11, 2008

As Rich King ducks through the door of a Starbucks, the immediate thought is this guy still looks young and fit enough, not to mention tall enough, to play pro basketball.

Sixteen years ago, he was the Sonics' No. 1 draft pick, the 14th player selected overall. A 7-foot-2 center from Nebraska, he possessed high-level passing and shooting skills, and the franchise had big plans for him, signing him to a four-year, $2.5 million deal.

He exited with the modest totals of 135 points and 74 rebounds in 72 games, starting maybe once or twice.

The numbers suggest King was a bust. The many scars on his body confirm his career path was more about luck than skill.

King had foot, knee, back and thumb surgeries, six in all. He stayed healthy for only his rookie season, appearing in 40 games.

"I knew Dick Zorn, the team's orthopedic surgeon, better than I knew George Karl," he said, referring to his coach. "Instead of being on the court, my memories of the Sonics are of being at Swedish Hospital, being in rehab, being with trainer Bob Medina. I'd never been hurt before that."

The first injury, a stress fracture, happened during the last week of training camp in his second year. He was on crutches for a month. He came back in January and hurt the foot again, requiring surgery and the insertion of two screws. He played in just three games during the 1992-93 season.

King needed surgery to repair cartilage in both knees. He broke the thumb on his shooting hand. He played in only 27 and two games over his final two seasons, respectively.

He was another Robert Swift, an untapped talent, minus the ponytail and about 25 tattoos.

Among his brief playing stints, King scored a career-best 10 points against the San Antonio Spurs and matched it against the Dallas Mavericks. Karl impulsively started him against the New York Knicks and Patrick Ewing, and the then-rookie scored the game's first four points, grabbed a couple of rebounds and was yanked after only four minutes of action, with Karl failing to put him back in and apologizing for it later.

"If I was able to stay healthy, I think I would have had a bright and promising pro career," said King, who remains the Sonics' tallest player along with Tom Burleson and James Donaldson. "I was still developing, getting better. I just got derailed."

After leaving the Sonics, he went to training camp with Minnesota, Denver and Vancouver, hurting knees at the last two stops. He played briefly with Sioux Falls in the CBA. Surgery No. 6 sent him into retirement.

Through all the basketball disappointments, he has never called any other place home, never moved more than two miles from his original apartment in Kirkland. The NBA didn't work out for him, but the Northwest did.

He spotted his future wife, Lenore, in the crowd at a Sonics game. She sat near the bench and they made eye contact. They met by chance afterward, each having a late dinner with a friend at Casa U Betcha. They've been married nearly seven years and have two sons, Christian, 3, and Beckham, 1.

"It was totally random," King said. "If my best friend had not been in town from Nebraska or I had gone to a different restaurant, I might not have ever met her."

Once done with pro basketball, he formed an investment company with former Sonics teammate Detlef Schrempf, became a licensed financial analyst, worked as an assistant coach one season each at Seattle Pacific and the CBA's Sioux Falls franchise, and for the past three years has worked for Marquis Jet, selling prepaid leases on private aircraft, a job that oddly requires him to travel by commercial airliner.

King, 38, still plays competitive basketball, if only casually at the Bellevue Club for an open league team that includes Schrempf. He says he can still pass and shoot. He suffers nothing more than aches and pains now. He doesn't need any more surgery and has no physical drawbacks.

Considering how much he played and the elapsed time, he should be fairly well preserved athletically, but King has no NBA comebacks in mind. He's a family man. He's more concerned about the Sonics leaving town and not getting a chance to expose his sons to his old team.

"I'm really excited for them to get older, to coaching their Little League teams," he said. "I hope the Sonic situation gets worked out, so I can take my sons to Sonic and Husky games."